I decided to try another Joyce Carol Oates book and took this one along when we went to my father-in-law's funeral. I started to read the book in a great bakery in Athens Ohio called Big Chimney. I opened up the book and read the postscript which mentions the source for all of the bread baking references in the book. Also, it is Oates' novel about the loss of her own mom. Uncanny coincidence. I was not totally impressed with this one. It took me a long time to get through it - partially because I was busy with pre-holiday preparations, but partially because the story seemed flat and dragged on too long.
